Chapter 20

After that, Lin Baixin took Yu Min with her and led her outside.

The commercial street was bright and noisy at night. Yu Min stood dazed by the roadside, staring blankly as they waited outside for the argument to die down.

The police even came. Well-meaning diners at another restaurant didn’t know the truth, and worried things might turn violent, had called 110.

By the time the police car pulled up downstairs, Zheng Qing and Yu Shengyu had already stopped hitting each other, but the accusations and curses had gone on. Yu Shengyu, furious beyond reason, his eyes red and his neck rigid with anger, snapped, “Were you already fooling around with him?”

Zheng Qing gave him a cold sidelong look; a twisted smugness surfaced on her face as she sneered, “What’s it to you?”

Yu Shengyu flew into a rage. That jab cut deeper than a knife; the humiliation nearly shattered what little pride and reason he had left. He seemed to have gone mad with anger, and even after the police went upstairs, he was still shouting that he was going to fight Zheng Qing’s first love to the death.

Aunt slapped Yu Shengyu hard across the face and cursed him as a “disgraceful thing” before the situation could spiral again.

Yu Min knew nothing about any of this. The ones who had actually fought were taken to the station by the police, but she and Zhou Jin didn’t go. Zhou Jin was completely dumbstruck; he had never seen anything like it and didn’t dare make a sound the whole time. Even after getting into the car, he was still in shock.

Lin Baixin fastened Yu Min’s seat belt for her. Yu Min sat motionless against the seat as the car pulled away from the restaurant; the scenery outside the window gradually blurred into streaks. She kept her head turned toward the window, staring out in silence the entire time.

Lin Baixin took them back to Heyuan. Once they were inside, she found the first-aid kit and bandaged Yu Min’s wound.

Yu Min had a cut on the back of her hand. It wasn’t clear how she got it; most likely she had been hit by flying debris while those people were fighting. She hadn’t noticed at all, hadn’t felt any pain, and hadn’t even realized she was bleeding.

Zhou Jin yelped. The moment he saw blood, he looked as if he’d seen a ghost, jumping nearly three meters straight up. “Oh my god! She’s bleeding! Hurry, to the hospital—no, wait, stop the bleeding first! What do we do, what do we do? I’m calling my mom, heavens…”

Lin Baixin caught Yu Min’s hand and started treating the wound. Yu Min was slow to react. She lowered her eyes and looked at it, but she was much calmer than Zhou Jin.

It was just a cut, not deep; it only looked serious because it was a little long. She didn’t even need stitches at the hospital—just disinfect it, and that would be enough.

“Who did this? Did they hit you?” Zhou Jin blurted out. “You don’t even hurt? What are you doing, why is there no reaction at all? Did you go numb from the pain?”

Lin Baixin pushed Zhou Jin aside and gave him a look that told him to shut up. Unfortunately, Zhou Jin couldn’t quite manage it and only quieted down after she flicked his forehead.

After wiping the blood from the back of Yu Min’s hand and disinfecting it with iodine, Lin Baixin crouched in front of her and then sent Zhou Jin upstairs to look for something.

Zhou Jin ran upstairs at once to do as he was told.

Yu Min sat there with her eyelids drooping, still not moving. It was as if her body and soul had been torn apart, leaving only an empty shell behind.

Lin Baixin touched her gently. “Are you all right?” she asked softly, concern in her voice.

The first time she asked, Yu Min didn’t answer. Her lips moved slightly, but for a long time no sound came out. Only when Lin Baixin asked again did she slowly turn her body and nod, giving a quiet mm.

“Stay here tonight. Rest first.” Lin Baixin soothed her.

It took Yu Min a while longer before she answered. “…Okay.”

She could only stay here tonight. She had long since had nowhere else to go.

Lin Baixin said a few more things after that, but Yu Min didn’t really listen. Zhou Jin found what he was looking for and came back down. Halfway through, Aunt called on video, worried about the three of them. In front of Yu Min, Lin Baixin said nothing, stepping outside to take the call so she wouldn’t disturb the two teenagers.

“You okay?” Zhou Jin asked too, worry showing in his eyes.

Yu Min ignored him, sitting alone as she lifted her eyes to glance toward where Lin Baixin had gone. She was utterly unmoved by everything he said and couldn’t take it in at all.

The whole thing had blown up badly. Scandal spread like wildfire. There was no way it would wait until tomorrow; before half the night was over, everyone would know. No one was getting a good night’s sleep tonight.

That very night, Yu’s grandparents rushed back to Siping overnight. As for Yu Shengyu and Zheng Qing, the police station hadn’t imposed any real punishment on them; after nothing more than a verbal warning and mediation, they were released. What awaited Yu Shengyu was a devastating lesson. The old couple cared about face above all else, and with troublemakers running to them to stir things up and complain in exaggerated detail, the two elders were practically furious enough to have a heart attack.

Yu Min did not take part in the adults’ conflict—and she didn’t need to.

Aunt said, “Don’t worry about it. Don’t let it affect you.”

Yu Min was completely pushed aside. Whether it was after Yu’s grandparents arrived or the matters that followed, the adults argued fiercely; no one would back down.

Zheng Qing being pregnant was only her word for it; whether it was true or not was still unknown. In any case, Zheng Qing insisted she really was pregnant and that she would give birth to the baby, both to get revenge on Yu Shengyu and disgust him, and because the two sides had ripped the mask off completely. Yu Shengyu had played dirty first; Zheng Qing was only returning the favor. The root of it all was that Yu Shengyu had broken his word. He had originally agreed to Zheng Qing’s conditions and promised to divide part of his property to her, and the matter had already been discussed and settled; then at the last moment he went back on it, refusing to hand over the property and refusing to divorce.

If Yu Shengyu wouldn’t divorce, Zheng Qing decided she would use that bastard child as a “bomb.” Since she couldn’t get the money, she might as well drag everyone down with her. The Yu family cared most about face; she would make the whole family a joke, unless Yu Shengyu fulfilled the promise according to the original terms.

Yu Min was unaffected. She didn’t go out, no one cared for her, and amid all this back-and-forth, she was the last to know. If not for Zhou Jin taking pity on her and occasionally stopping by to tell her how things were going, she wouldn’t even have known that on Friday Zheng Qing had actually brought people from her own family to hold one final negotiation with Yu Shengyu and the others.

And that same day, Yu Min also saw Yu Shengyu’s mistress for the first time. Before that, she had only heard that such a person existed. Yu Shengyu was strange too—Yu Min didn’t know whether he had brought the woman himself or whether she had insisted on coming. She ran into the woman at the entrance to the house. Yu Shengyu had absolutely no shame; the mistress he’d found was a young girl, apparently not much older than Yu Min, only in her early twenties.

The midsummer sun was vicious; the bright red disk hung high in the sky, so glaring it was hard to open one’s eyes.

“Who are you going with?” Zhou Jin asked quietly, asking something both out of place and unnecessary.

Yu Min kept her mouth shut, lowering her eyes to the mottled shadow of the old tree as she withdrew her scrutinizing gaze.

“This time they’re really getting divorced,” Zhou Jin told her in a low voice. “Aunt Zheng said so; they’re going to court. Uncle’s already found a lawyer too. A few people came by yesterday. They’re not messing around; this time it’s different from before.”

Yu Min’s expression remained calm. “I don’t know.”

“And who are you going with?” Zhou Jin asked again.

“I don’t know.”

“Oh, right, there’s something else you probably don’t know. I’ll tell you, but don’t say I told you.”

Yu Min wasn’t interested and didn’t listen. But Zhou Jin still leaned in, determined to keep talking.

Zhou Jin said, “Uncle might not be able to have children. There’s a pretty good chance we’re not even one family.”

Yu Min paused; her whole body went still.

There was no way to verify whether that was true either. Mainly, no one came to Yu Min to verify it. Yu Shengyu was busy dealing with Zheng Qing, while at the same time falling out with his little lover. That unborn child from before had become a thorn in Yu Shengyu’s heart.

That summer, cicadas never stopped shrilling. The temperature in Siping was higher than in previous years, and the news often reported on global warming. Yu Min was basically shut in the house every day and rarely went out.

For more than a month, Zheng Qing didn’t come looking for her again, and neither did Yu Shengyu. The couple no longer fought over custody of her; they had more pressing matters to deal with and no time to worry about her.

At most, Yu’s grandparents came once to Lin Baixin’s place. Lin Baixin wouldn’t let them in. Uncle Xiao came over to smooth things out and mediate, and after much discussion they finally managed to get Yu Min to meet them once.

Yu Min knew perfectly well why they were there, and she refused to give in; she would not agree to a paternity test.

“My parents’ business has nothing to do with me,” she said.

The grandparents trembled with anger. Lin Baixin stood in the middle and asked them to leave. Old Master Yu fainted on the spot, and Uncle Xiao hurriedly helped him up and took him to the hospital.

After that, the paternity test was still done. The lawsuit between the couple officially began. Zheng Qing wanted Yu Min to cooperate with Yu Shengyu in taking the test. In Zheng Qing’s words, she was clean and innocent, unlike that rotten bastard Yu Shengyu; even Heaven couldn’t stand to watch, and this was Yu Shengyu’s retribution.

The child carried by the mistress was not Yu Shengyu’s. Yu Min was.

Yu Shengyu was supposed to have no fertility at all, but he had gotten lucky once in his life; it was destined that he would have a daughter like Yu Min. That kind of luck would not come a second time. The mistress’s child belonged to someone else, and Yu Shengyu had truly become a joke.

The paternity report only came out after summer ended. The process was quick. By then, Yu Min had already gone back to First High to attend classes, and Lin Baixin was still the one taking her to school. The Yu family had not yet received the results, so they hadn’t shown up.

“I’ll be back next month.” Lin Baixin spoke gently, patting Yu Min’s shoulder. “If anything happens, call me anytime. If you can’t get through, send a message.” Slightly bent toward her, she looked at Yu Min in silence for a moment and then added, “Have you memorized my number?”

Yu Min only answered the second half. “I have.”

“It’s still the same number; it hasn’t changed,” Lin Baixin said. “You’re on monthly leave. If I don’t get a call from you, I’ll call you back when I’m off.”

Yu Min nodded, but afterward she never once called that number; instead, it was always Lin Baixin who called her.

Lu An acted as the go-between. Sometimes Yu Min’s phone wasn’t even turned on, so the call would go through to Lu An. Then Lu An would come find Yu Min in Class 32 of Grade Two and call her outside to answer the phone.

Divorce lawsuits were not easy to fight. They couldn’t be settled in a single round; there was mediation, a deadlock, more mediation... Half a year passed and the case still hadn’t been decided. Even after the first trial was concluded, another six months went by.

Yu Shengyu began actively fighting for custody and refused to let go. Sometimes he would also come to the school to find Yu Min. Yu Min didn’t want to see him; whenever there was a holiday, she simply hid away. When she really couldn’t hide anymore, she would stand in front of Yu Shengyu like a mute who couldn’t speak, unwilling to say another word.

Her father had a terrible temper and no patience. After a few more times, he got so angry he stopped coming.

...

Everything was in utter chaos.

Before Zheng Qing and Yu Shengyu’s lawsuit was even over, Lin Baixin graduated first and, according to the original plan, stayed in Kyoto. The following May, she made a special trip back to Siping to see Yu Min at First High.

In the quiet coffee shop, Yu Min lowered her head and didn’t look at her. In a muffled voice, she only said:

“I want to be with you..."

Author’s Note:

Tomorrow’s Thursday update will be delayed until Friday at midnight. The next chapter will go VIP; thank you for following along. I’ll send out another red packet for this chapter.

My next book will be *Out of Control*. Could everyone please bookmark it? Thank you~

*Out of Control* synopsis:

Fang Jianxia had always been an honest, proper woman.

She was serious, dull, and strictly rule-bound; everything she did was rigid and formal, with not a trace of charm or romance.

For the first twenty-five years of her life, Fang Jianxia followed the proper order: school, university entrance exams, graduation, work, supporting her family... and then, obediently following her parents’ wishes, going on blind dates and getting engaged without any initiative of her own to a man who was just as ordinary and equally emotionless.

If nothing unexpected had happened, that would have been her whole life; uninteresting, tasteless, but at the same time perfectly stable, smooth, and uneventful all the way through.

But an accident still came. A twist of fate changed everything. The Fang family provoked trouble they never should have provoked, and to calm the storm, Fang Jianxia had no choice but to find the person involved—the one named Su Mu.

Su Mu was also a woman. She was not normal; to Fang Jianxia, she was an outlier, a pervert.

Su Mu actually liked women.

For the first time in her life, Fang Jianxia became a liar. Awkwardly, she tried to please Su Mu, to win her favor, doing her utmost to carry out all kinds of things against her own nature... things that embarrassed her, things she could not say out loud.

—She climbed into Su Mu’s bed.

Fang Jianxia was very conflicted. Clearly, she had been holding herself back desperately like a block of unawakened wood, yet at times she would also lose control and fall into it involuntarily.

·

From Su Mu’s point of view:

Su Mu saw through all these tricks from the very beginning, yet she still turned a blind eye and allowed everything.

Just as Fang Jianxia thought, she was shameless and vile, determined to steal someone else’s beloved, refusing to let go, an outright madwoman.

—She was hers, and could only ever belong to her alone.

·

TL Note:

110 = China’s police emergency number.